Daniel Acker/BloombergTrucks drive through security check points at the Port Newark Container Terminal in Port Newark, N.J. on Feb. 4, 2009. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is offering grants to help truckers purchase new vehicles to replace old trucks in an effort to reduce pollution.
NEW YORK — Every day, thousands of trucks arrive at the Port Authority’s marine terminals to take containers off large ships and haul them to warehouses and distribution centers en route to stores and homes.

"They bring us the goods we want, when we want them," said Richard Kassel, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "But they also bring us soot emissions that trigger asthma attacks and bronchitis and cancer and emphysema and premature deaths."

Kassel and other environmentalists are hailing a new $28 million program by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to replace up to 636 older polluting trucks serving the port with newer models that generate less pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The money will be used for grants and low-interest loans to help offset costs for truckers who junk their pre-1994 models -- which will be banned from the port beginning Jan. 1 -- and buy more environmentally friendly trucks.

But some truckers say they are living so close to the edge financially that the incentive — a 25-percent grant toward the cost of buying $20,000 to $60,000 replacement trucks in the model years 2004-08 — would not be enough to persuade them to go green.

"Most truckers will not be able to qualify for the loans; the last five years have been really, really tough on us," said Kenel Hyppolite of Jersey City. "I really don’t think it’s going to work."

"For clean air, I’m all for it. Who would like to drive a truck with soot?" asked trucker Ramon Colon of Newark.

But Colon said that even with the incentives, too much of the burden is placed on the drivers.

"It places a severe economic burden on port truck drivers who average $10 to $11 an hour and lack a safety net, rather than the giant shipping companies and trucking outfits that profit from goods movement," said Amy Goldsmith, executive director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation on behalf of the Coalition for Healthy Ports.

But EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck said the incentive is "handsome" and expected a hearty response from truckers.

"My prediction is, this is going to be oversubscribed," she said.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, pre-1994 model trucks will no longer be able to call on Port Authority marine terminals. Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, trucks not equipped with engines that meet or exceed 2007 federal emissions standards will no longer be able to call on the terminals.

During a news conference yesterday from the Port Authority’s Truck Replacement Center in Elizabeth, Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni said the phase-out program to replace polluting 18-wheelers will take a "dramatic step" toward cleaning up the environment.

"What it really means is that our neighbors all up and down the New Jersey Turnpike, all throughout New York and New Jersey — their air is going to be cleaner," said Baroni, a former New Jersey state senator making his first public appearance in his new Port Authority post. "Their kids are going to be healthier. The neighborhoods are going to be more environmentally friendly."

In the fall, the Port Authority authorized nearly $9 million for a pair of initiatives to improve air quality: reimbursing ocean vessel operators up to 50 percent of the cost differential between high-sulfur and low-sulfur fuel and reimbursing port tenants 20 percent of the cost of replacing cargo-handling equipment with new equipment meeting federal on-road air emission standards.

Pre-applications for grants and financial assistance to cover the cost of a new truck are available at the Truck Replacement Center, 1180 McLester St., Elizabeth, or online at www.replacemytruck.org.